Acrab’s US$130M raise signals SEA’s deeper push into AI hardware

Singapore-based technology firm Acrab has secured US$130 million in investment for its AI compute infrastructure venture, signaling a growing focus on hardware and systems powering AI applications. The Series B round, led by Vertex Ventures SEA & India and Vertex Growth, includes participation from European and Southeast Asian institutional investors.

Acrab's Agent Box platform, powered by its first-generation GΞLIX 1 chip, will benefit from the funding to scale products, expand its ecosystem and develop the next generation of computing platforms. The company aims for industrial deployments across multiple domains and expects revenue generation in 2026.

Acrab's strategy centers on building a full-stack AI computing platform that combines purpose-built silicon, edge AI systems and software orchestration. By moving AI from cloud data centers to the edge, Acrab aims to address challenges such as latency, connectivity dependence, energy costs, data privacy concerns and rising cloud bills.

The company's GΞLIX 1 chip is designed to run large language models with 100 billion parameters locally, enabling applications like equipment monitoring in manufacturing plants, on-device AI in healthcare, and vehicle routing in logistics.

Acrab's Agent Box, a personal edge AI system, supports local large-model inference, persistent memory, multimodal interactions and on-device agent orchestration. This approach could provide edge AI solutions for industries with uneven connectivity, sensitive data and real-time response requirements. Southeast Asia's rapid AI adoption, combined with its dependence on global computing infrastructure, makes Acrab's localization efforts strategically important.

The region's capital networks, research talent, corporate customers and supportive policies make Singapore an ideal base for infrastructure-intensive ventures like Acrab.